Braised Onion Sauce
Submitted by megsb
Onions slow-braised in butter for an hour until deeply caramelized, finished with Madeira wine, and tossed with pasta and Parmesan. Five ingredients, one knockout sauce.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
20 minREADY
60 minFive ingredients. One hour of patience. A pasta sauce that will make people think you trained in France.
A pound and a half of sliced onions go into a buttery skillet, covered, until they soften into translucent ribbons.
Then the lid comes off, a spoonful of sugar goes in, and the heat drops low for a slow, golden transformation that takes the better part of an hour.
By the time you’re done, those onions are jammy, sweet, and so deeply browned they barely resemble what you started with.
A splash of Madeira wine at the finish adds a nutty richness, and the whole thing gets tossed with hot pasta and a shower of grated Parmesan.
Kitchen Tips
- Low heat and patience are everything. There’s no shortcut to deep caramelization. If the onions start to burn or stick, add a splash of water and keep going.
- Tomato pasta or spaghetti works best here, as the original recipe suggests. The slight acidity of tomato pasta plays beautifully against the sweet onions.
- Madeira is the ideal wine for this sauce because of its caramel and nutty notes. Dry sherry makes a decent substitute if you can’t find Madeira.
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a skillet, add the onion, and cook, covered, over medium heat until soft and transparent.
Uncover, stir in the sugar, reduce the he and cook gently until brown, about 1 hour.
Stir in the Madeira and cook 2 minutes.
Toss the sauce with drained, cooked pasta, preferably tomato pasta spaghetti, or macaroni.
Serve at once with grated Parmesan cheese.
Comments